Madison - State Supreme Court Justice Patience Roggensack easily won a second term Tuesday, overcoming Marquette University law professor Ed Fallone.

With 93% of precincts reporting, Roggensack had 57% of the vote to Fallone's 43%.

Roggensack touted her experience in the race, noting she served seven years on the Court of Appeals and nearly 10 years on the Supreme Court. She had the backing of law enforcement and more than 100 judges, as well as the state Republican Party.

Fallone, who had the support of Democrats and unions, contended the high court has grown dysfunctional and said Roggensack needed to be replaced to start to improve sour relationships on the court.

Roggensack's victory gives her a second 10-year term on the bench and preserves the court's conservative majority. On the most controversial issues and cases in recent years, the court has often split 4-3, with Roggensack in the majority.

Speaking to reporters after the race was called, Roggensack thanked supporters and said she believed voters wanted to see a justice with knowledge of the job and were tired of negative campaigns.

"Now I can go back to my books. It suits me just fine," she told her backers at her victory party at Veranda, a restaurant in Fitchburg.

Roggensack was joined at her party by Justice Annette Ziegler, who often rules the same way as Roggensack.

Fallone told supporters at the Best Place in Milwaukee that he was proud of his campaign and that he would continue to fight for issues he raised in the race about campaign financing and judicial discipline.

"Deep divisions remain in our state Supreme Court," he said. "They need to be healed. But I hope with today's election that the members of the court can begin work on healing those divisions, moving past their disputes and restoring our state Supreme Court to a position of respect."

Roggensack's re-election comes as the court is expected to take up major cases in the coming years, including rulings from lower courts that invalidated Wisconsin's voter ID law and parts of Act 10, the law curtailing collective bargaining for most public workers. Roggensack and Fallone never said how they would rule on those matters, though Roggensack was part of a 4-3 majority in 2011 that found lawmakers had not violated the open meetings law in approving Act 10.

Roggensack had the edge throughout the race, securing twice as many votes as Fallone in the Feb. 19 primary and consistently raising more campaign cash than he did. As of March 18, she had raised more than $536,000 to Fallone's roughly $320,000.

Roggensack, 72, first won a seat on the Supreme Court in 2003. She earned her law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Fallone, 48, has taught at Marquette since 1992, specializing in corporate, constitutional and criminal law. He is also of counsel at Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan and co-founded a group that advocates for stem cell research. He received his law degree from Boston University.

Throughout the campaign, Roggensack argued experience was the overarching issue voters should focus on, saying her time on the bench and background reviewing cases from all areas of the law made her the best candidate. Fallone contended his experience stacked up against Roggensack's and said she needed to be replaced to improve relationships on the court.

He frequently highlighted the June 2011 physical altercation between Justices David Prosser and Ann Walsh Bradley, saying it illustrated the problems on the court. He criticized Roggensack for recusing herself from an ethics case against Prosser over that incident, in which Prosser put his hands on Bradley's neck. Prosser contends Bradley charged him with her fist raised; Bradley denies that claim.

Roggensack said she had to step aside from the case because she witnessed the incident and could not be impartial.

Because Roggensack and four other justices are not participating, the case is stalled. Just two justices remain on the case, and normally four or more are needed for the court to take any action.

Roggensack has said she will have the court meet as a group after the election to find a way to resolve the dispute.

That appears difficult because of the deep divides on the court. Bradley and Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson have been critical of an attempt by Roggensack to have the court send a letter of apology to the public for the incident, which they said was insufficient and divisive. Roggensack, though, has said in recent weeks she is committed to continuing to work on the matter.

In an interview Tuesday night, Roggensack said she didn't expect big changes in the way justices relate with one another after the campaign.

"I don't anticipate that the relationships will change," she said.

Assembly seat. Also Tuesday, Adam Neylon secured a seat in the state Assembly in a special election.

Neylon won a five-way Republican primary in February but faced no opposition in Tuesday's race for the heavily GOP 98th Assembly District.

The Village of Pewaukee business owner will fill the seat vacated by Paul Farrow, a Republican from the Village of Pewaukee who left the Assembly after winning a December special election for the state Senate.

Neylon's victory means all 99 seats in the Assembly will now be filled. Republicans will control the chamber 60-39 once he is sworn in.

Journal Sentinel reporters Jason Stein in Fitchburg and Bill Glauber in Milwaukee contributed to this report.

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Supreme Court

About Patrick Marley

Patrick Marley covers state government and state politics. He is the author, with Journal Sentinel reporter Jason Stein, of "More Than They Bargained For: Scott Walker, Unions and the Fight for Wisconsin.”